Another area, you cannot affirm is a ‘great feast of wreckage’ is the lighting and sound. I completely disagree with this proposal as the lighting and sound affects in this scene add to the tension of the viewer. For example the music at the start of the scene is a faint tension building sound, which gradually builds up to the crescendo of a loud crash after which it immediately turns silent. The action at this point is where the tanker tips over and grinds slowly into the steel works where Terminator jumps off and rolls like a true action hero.
In this scene Cameron uses numerous amounts of skilled camera angles such as close-ups, low angle shots and high angle shots. These are mostly close ups of faces and the vehicles. There is one extremely important close-up of John Connors face when he believes he has escaped T-1000’s evil grasp but then the T-1000 comes hurtling off the bridge in a huge, black, destructive truck he is in this truck to show he is superior to the T-800 and John as they are on smaller less destructive vehicles. This sequence is also slowed down, so the moment is valued through the close up of John’s petrified face. The obliteration of the bridge is not only adding to the story line but to the audience it gives them a moment of suspense so they think he has escaped from the T-1000 when a second later he comes flying off the bridge. Making it not, ‘A great feast of wreckage’ but ‘a great piece of directing’. Another example of an extremely important shot in this scene is where Terminator (like a true action hero) comes soaring off a slender piece of concrete onto the lower level of the canal. The shot is a low angle shot it is also slowed down, again to value the moment and give the audience an indication that he is the ‘good guy’. This astounding piece of directing subconsciously makes the Terminator an icon in the viewers mind. They may even relate to him as a ‘Post modern super hero’.
Constantly in this film there is wreckage but this is present in all action films such as ‘Die hard’ and the early James Bond films, which I am sure you have watched and reviewed being a film critic. These films have an incredible amount more wreckage than ‘T2’, car chases, which usually end up in an exploding car.
Terminator 2 has a lot more to offer than one of the films I have just mentioned, the films message is not destruction and violence but a lot of it is about character development. This character development is obvious to an intensely gripped viewer; it is shown mainly through the T-800. At the start of the film the T-800 is a robot, feeling no emotions and on a mission to destroy Cybernet with the help of John and Sarah Connor. It becomes apparent that he has no emotions, first when he is in the bar trying to locate some clothes, he is stabbed by the end of a cigar and he shows no emotion. Yet what is not clear to the reader is that the T-800 wants to help John and Sarah as in the first film the T-800 was a ‘bad guy’. The Terminators’ character has developed by the end of the film; this is shown extremely skilfully by the T-800 expressing emotions before he jumps into the molten steel.
You may also say that it is a stereotypical action film, but I believe it not to be at all, the originality of the director is outstanding. This is shown in the opening sequence when the Terminator walks into the bar and climbs into the clothes of a Hells angel and rides off on a Harley Davidson to the music ‘Bad to the bone’. This instantly portrays him as ‘the bad guy’. His true character is the complete antithesis of this, but you are lead to believe that he is ‘bad to the bone’ until The Terminator, rescues John Connor off his scrambler from T-1000.
When you refer to this scene as ‘a feast of wreckage’ you have not once considered thinking back to the start of the film where wreckage is cut down to a minimum. This is done by John Connor escaping off the overpass onto the abandoned canal. By doing this, the director removes countless amounts of crashes and wreckage and narrows it down to just a few minor scrapes and the tyre marks of the truck on John’s scrambler. But I hear you saying ‘Yes but the lorry being driven by the T-1000 blows up at the end of this scene’ I realise that but nevertheless it is not pointless wreckage.
Overall, in this film, I would agree with you that there is a large amount of wreckage but all this wreckage is there for a reason. The most obvious reason being, as I said at the start, is to build tension. At this point, more than ever, I would say to myself that the comment you made on the film being ‘a great feast of wreckage’ is truly un-thoughtful. Though if it was thoroughly thought through I do wonder where you get your phrase. Ironically, Terminate means ‘to destroy’. I hope I have now proved to you the film is more than that, an incredible amount more than that. I would now recommend that you re-viewed the film in the light of my letter to understand why I, and presumably a vast amount of others, see this film as a ‘one of a kind’ action-thriller pondering on the thought that it is not just ‘a great feast of wreckage’.
Yours faithfully,
Reuben Wilsker.
